musket remained in their hands. The bombardment was

By means of a covered crossing the ditch that

reopened with increased vigour. sap the Russians succeeded in surrounded the citadel, and they laid a mine under the principal tower, which was blown up into the air on the 27th July, 1853. By its destruction a breach of sixty feet in width was effected, into which the Kokánese threw themselves in all haste, determined to dispute the passage of the enemy. The garrison, only three hundred strong, notwithstanding the loss of their chief, fought with lionlike courage, and two hundred and thirty fell dead on the scene of conflict, which they had defended inch by inch, but all in vain. A vast quantity of arms and warlike stores fell into the hands of the Russian conquerors, who from this time forth named the place Fort Perovsky.

The capture of Ak-Mesjed dealt a heavy blow against the power of Kokán. It was therefore natural to expect that the Khán would strain every nerve to retake the place. The Russians, however, with prudent foresight, abstained from endeavouring to make further conquests, and remained contented for the next few months with strengthening their position along the Sír-Dariá. Two forts one on the delta of the small river Kasály, the other at Karmákchi, distant one hundred and twenty English miles from the mouths of the Jaxartes-connected Aralsk with Fort Perovsky. In the latter they left a garrison of one thousand men, with sufficient provisions and forage to last for more than a year. · These four forts together form the so-called 'line of the SírDaria.' This precaution was not unwise.

The Khán of Kokán, who had lost the fort of AkMesjed partly through the revolt of a vassal, the Governor

K

of Táshkend,' whom he pretended to chastise, caused an extraordinary levy of troops to be made. He then, on the 17th December, 1853, suddenly turned against AkMesjed and the Russians with fifteen thousand Kokánese and some seventeen guns. The Russians, aware that their prestige among the Turanian races would be materially impaired by exposing themselves to a regular siege, determined, although the garrison was reduced to a single battalion of infantry and five hundred Cossacks, to make under their gallant leaders a most obstinate resistance. In this mood they ventured on a sally against the enemy, who were tenfold superior in numbers-an act of daring that would have cost them dearly had they not finally succeeded in crushing their besiegers so much stronger numerically. The Russians, surrounded on every side, were almost on the point of succumbing, when a fortunate diversion threw the enemy's ranks into disorder, who took to flight, leaving two thousand dead and wounded on the field, besides their seventeen guns.

In the meanwhile the Kirghiz, hitherto the faithful allies of the Russians, began to regret having afforded assistance to the enemies of the Turkoman nation.

A

Tashkend was in the year 1800 the capital of a separate khanate, which was in 1810 conquered and subjugated by Kokán on account of its internal dissensions and inherent weakness. This weakness was owing to the circumstance of this khanate being constituted from three separate provinces composed of the sedentary populations of Táshkend, Chemkend, and Turkestan, who were again separated from each other by the nomadic tribes of the Kirghiz. The sedentary populations of these different provinces were constantly exposed to the predatory incursions of the Kirghiz during the existence of the khanate of Tashkend. This khanate in earlier periods frequently fell to pieces, but was just as often re-established. These different provinces were continually at variance with each other, and more especially so at the time when they acknowledged the suzerainty of Kokán. (Globus, vol. xii. p. 146.)

6

bold leader, Izzet Kutebar, understood how to awaken their patriotic feelings. He visited the kibitkas, and caused the chieftains of the tribes to blush with shame when he compared their conduct with that of their ancestors. The youth he inflamed with a passion for war. Steeds and arms they have,' he cried; 'have we not the like? Are we not as numerous as the sands of the desert? Wheresoever ye turn—whether towards the east or the west, or towards the north or the south-ye surely find Kirghiz. Wherefore then should we submit to a handful of strangers?' Kutebar's fiery eloquence resounded with a lively echo, and a considerable number of partisans flocked around his standard.

The Russians soon became conscious of the presence of a dangerous adversary. No caravan could traverse the desert without being attacked; consequently the supply of provisions and stores to the fortified places became questionable. Under these circumstances, General Perovsky, following the maxim Divide et impera, determined to employ the Kirghiz themselves to suppress this fearful rebellion. By means of presents and promises he won over a nomad chief, Sultán Araslán, who engaged with nine hundred men of his tribe, supported by some sotnias of Cossacks, to bring back Kutebar's head. This was, however, no easy undertaking; for Kutebar, with the rapidity of lightning, rushed upon those who vainly imagined that they could elude his. vigilance. His followers stole unobserved into Araslán's tents, surprised and killed him, as well as many of his horde. The Cossacks with great difficulty regained the Russian fort.

This success emboldened Kutebar in his audacity-so much so that the Russian General Commanding-in-Chief deemed it necessary to oppose him with an army in the

field. For this purpose, numerous detachments of Cossacks and Bashkirs, and battalions of infantry and batteries of artillery, marched out of Orsk, Orenburg, and Uralsk, but all in vain. In spite of the most profound and inviolable secrecy observed by the Russian officers, Kutebar invariably gained, as if wafted to him by the winds across the steppe, the quickest information of all that was designed against him. If the Russians chanced to come upon the positions held only on the previous day by the rebel troops, they found nothing but the extinguished camp-fires.

Inured to hardships and accustomed to the greatest deprivations, the Kirghiz fled to the inaccessible steppes of the tableland of Ust-Urt.

To give a detailed narrative of Kutebar's deeds would lead us too far from our subject. Suffice it then to say that for five long years he played his game of cutting off the enemy's communications, isolating the Europeans in their fortified places, and managing to escape every attempt to capture him. At length the Russian Government, convinced that force would be of no avail against so wily an enemy, resolved to pursue a totally different course. It made very flattering proposals to Kutebar and his subordinate chieftains, and promised to all a general amnesty. Thus diplomacy gained what arms could not accomplish. In the middle of the year 1858, Kutebar gave in his submission.1

1 Émile Jonveaux, Les Russes dans l'Asie Centrale (Revue des deux Mondes, 1867, vol. lxvii. pp. 973-980).

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CHAPTER VIII.

THE WAR WITH KOKÁN.

VARIOUS circumstances had, in the meantime, protracted the struggle already commenced on the Sír-Daria. The Amír of Bokhára, Mozaffer-ed-din Khán,' aware of the difficult position of Kokán brought on by the European invasion, and encouraged by the Russians in his warlike intentions, fell on the hardly pressed neighbouring khanate, in the hope of being able to annex the richest provinces of his old rival. The condition of Kokán was favourable to his projects, as several pretenders were contesting for the throne, who seized one after another the

1 Mozaffer is the son of Amir Nasr-Allah, 'the victory of faith,' who in his latter days was an extremely dissolute and cruel tyrant. Lejean describes him as a kind of Louis XI. made up of a Heliogabalus (Revue des deux Mondes, vol. lxix. p. 686). He punished his subjects with death for immoral acts, which he himself committed in the most barefaced manner. On the contrary, according to Vámbéry's testimony, Mozaffer is a well-intentioned man, very strict, and of irreproachable character as regards his personal conduct. He is much respected and extolled by his subjects. In other respects he adheres firmly to the political principles of his father, and, being a Mollah and a conscientious Mohammedan, he is a declared and, as Lejean states, a fanatical enemy of the unbeliever; he is also opposed to all reforms and innovations, even if their use and advantage be self-evident. He assumed the motto, 'Govern by justice; and, at least according to Bokharian conceptions of this maxim, he has remained true to this principle. He is extremely severe towards the dignitaries of state, and punishes them with death for the smallest offence; but at the same time he is more lenient towards those in an humbler position. For this reason the people say of him, 'He destroys the elephants, but protects the mice.'